The Comedy of Errors – review

3 /
5 stars

The Playhouse, Adelaide, then touring

Comedy of Errors: Scenes happen under the glow of a tanning bed, in 24-hour table tennis halls or under the flashing strobe of a night club. Photograph: Bell Shakespeare/State Theatre Company of South Australia

We meet on the street at the centre of Ephesus' dingy nightlife. Flashing lights advertise LIVE GIRLS; the too short dresses are paired with too high heels; drinks are slammed down.

In The Comedy of Errors, directed by Imara Savage for the State Theatre Company of South Australia and Bell Shakespeare, scenes happen under the glow of a tanning bed, in 24-hour table tennis halls, and under the flashing strobe of a night club. It's Shakespeare shown at his crudest and broadest, and his text feels comfortable in this world. At times the language is near impenetrable, at others it feels startlingly contemporary – but Savage's production finds most success and its biggest humour when it goes beyond the text and into the physical.

We meet two sets of identical twins separated at a young age, the two Antipholuses and their corresponding slaves Dromio, each unaware of their pair. As one of the Dromios searches for his Antipholus, Adriana searches for her husband and debts are sought to be paid, any finer plot points are little more than window dressing.

Focusing on the outlandish moments of the comedy, rather that the circumstances in which they were reached, sees the work truly come alive. Savage takes the archetypes in Shakespeare's text and makes them contemporary: the preening Adriana and Luciana (Jude Henshall) could be out of an Australian Real Housewives, the Duke (Anthony Taufa) takes notes from The Godfather.

By combining these characters with a high degree of physicality and slapstick, Savage really draws out both the comedy of the piece and the biggest laughs from the audience. Pip Runciman's set, a wall of swinging doors in changing neon glow (lights by Mark Pennington), becomes integral to the comedy, particularly in a montage chase scene where the work becomes unrelenting farce.

The characters and their plight are almost immaterial to the play – Shakespeare arguably uses them merely as a frame for misdirection and mistaken identities. This means the comedy is embedded in the farce, and, unfortunately, is lost in scenes reliant on forwarding or explaining the plot.

It's during these scenes heavy in exposition – including the overly long opening – Savage loses her audience and has to work to bring them back into the comedy. She is repeatedly successful in recapturing us, and the work ends on a high, but there remain too many moments when the energy lags.

Still, the production is frequently hilarious, and the performers at their best when they must fight against the rolling laughter of the audience to be heard. The cast takes joy in every outlandish turn, every heightened pratfall and every piece of slapstick.

Renato Musolino and Hazen Shammas as the separated Dromio twins might not make the most obvious pair, but in performance they play off each other's physicality with great precision: in the way they furrow their brow, blink their eyes, and run across stage with a hunch in their back and a jump in their step. We have no trouble believing everyone else sees carbon copies. Similarly, Nathan O'Keefe and Septimus Caton play the Antipholus twins with all the prep of a private school boy, while Elena Carapetis delivers a hysterical performance as Adriana: she deserves a mention just for remaining steady in seven-inch heels.

The Comedy of Errors is rowdy, good old-fashioned fun set in a modern Australia we perhaps wish we were a little less familiar with. When Savage and her cast pull off the bewildering comedy of mistaken identities they have the audience in the palm of their hand. It's a pity they occasionally lose their grip.